1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to certain new and useful improvements in electronic gaming apparatus and a method of playing a game of chance and, more particularly, to a gaming apparatus which is capable of dispensing selected tickets containing indicia and generating indicia from a machine readable code on the ticket for display of the indicia corresponding to that on the ticket.
2. Brief Description of Related Art
With the recent advances in electronic circuitry, there have been many attempts to automate games and particularly, games of gambling which were heretofore played with little or no electronic game operation. These attempts to automate games have become even more pronounced in view of the recent advances in miniature microprocessor technology.
One of the games, for example, which was previously played without any type of electronic interaction was the game of poker. This necessarily involved a dealer and a plurality of players utilizing playing cards. Recently, however, the game of poker has been automated and can literally be played by actuating selected combinations of push buttons on an electronic gaming device which includes a display screen. Other games involving playing cards have also been automated so as to enable playing on an electronic game apparatus of this type.
In the conventional game of Pull-Tab, frequently played in gaming establishments, a large number of cards, or similar substrates, are located in a box or other open container. Each of the cards are printed with some type of indicia which may be a number, a symbol or the like and only a limited number of the cards in this box or other container have a winning indicia. Each of the indicia are covered by a removable cover sheet having a tab thereon and hence, the cards are referred to as "Pull Tabs."
A dealer, upon appropriate payment by a player, will remove one of the cards from the container and provide the same to a player. Since the indicia are covered by the removable cover sheet, and since the card with winning indicia are randomly located within the container, neither the dealer nor the player know if the player is receiving a card or ticket with a winning indicia until such time as the tab is engaged and the cover sheet is removed.
There is no prior art electronic gaming apparatus which is capable of dispensing a pre-printed ticket used in a game of chance and where the ticket has indicia thereon to determine if the receiver of the ticket wins a game or attains a score in the game and which also generates a display of the indicia on the ticket. More specifically, there is no prior art apparatus of this type in which a machine readable code on the ticket can be used to generate a display of the indicia on the ticket to be dispensed to a player.
The present invention relies on an innovation which electronically enhances this game of Pull Tab and other similar games which utilize selection of randomly arranged substrates having indicia thereon. This present invention is also applicable to the automating of various other types of games, including games of playing cards, as hereinafter described, and is particularly adaptable to games which have a plurality of substrates bearing indicia thereon in the nature of playing cards or the cards used in a game of chance.